First Thursday Preview: 25th Anniversary Edition

What's opening in downtown galleries tonight

Sarah Ellen Taylor at Augen Gallery
WW art critic Richard Speer previews tonight's First Thursday openings.


Horia Boboia
I Am Sorry
Nine Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave., 225-0210. Oct. 6-30.



Gregory Grenon
Behavior
Laura Russo Gallery, 805 Northwest 21st Ave., 226-2754, laurarusso.com. Oct. 6-29.

Sarah Ellen Taylor
Marylhurst University graduate Sarah Ellen Taylor now lives in the north of England. The mixed-media works in her lovejoy series transmute imagery of jewelry, cosmetics, and clothing into elegant, whimsical semi-abstraction. Interestingly, she sees the consumerist subject matter as a fitting tribute to the religion she practices, Buddhism, which preaches a resolutely anti-consumerism asceticism. Many of the works are dipped in silk clothing dye, then gilded with various metals, imparting a multifaceted appearance. Augen Gallery, 716 NW Davis St., 546-5056, augengallery.com. Oct. 6-29.

Sally Finch

Sally Finch's Weather Studies meticulously plots global climate data onto grids, assigning a different color to each time period of climatological measurement. In the midst of creating these compositions, the artist saw similarities to electrocardiogram printouts, suggesting a link between human respiration and nature's own breathing in and breathing out over the eons. Finch's work is both conceptually challenging and visually rapturous, a one-two punch all too rarely seen. Froelick Gallery, 714 NW Davis St., 222-1142, froelickgallery.com. Closes Oct. 29.

WWeek 2015

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.